


Read Me To Sleep

by waterfallliam



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 00:15:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9046835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterfallliam/pseuds/waterfallliam
Summary: Newt could feel himself blushing. He pressed a kiss over Hermann’s heart.(holiday gift/fic for the discord channel/chat!)





	

**Author's Note:**

> so, first of all, happy holidays to everyone! it's honestly wonderful to be a part of the chat/channel and so here is something from me for all of you <3  
> 'Prompt: Write/draw/create however it works best for you something cute, sweet fluffy, or as our channel mod put it, “pure, unadulterated marshmallow fluff.”'  
> and a quick disclaimer: i know almost nothing about physics, i just love watching documentaries, so please consider that what i've written may really just be fanciful science fiction  
> hope you enjoy!

Newt was laying in bed, curled up under a duvet that smelled of the man he loved. There really was nowhere else he’d rather be right now. 

These sleepovers of theirs were happening increasingly often, much to Newt’s delight. Sometimes, his pyjamas still smelled of Hermann’s bed the next night. Newt hadn’t ever imagined apple shower gel and the shatterdome’s standard detergent could smell so good.

The only sounds that interrupted the faint hum of the shatterdome was the occasional rustle of sheets or the turning of the pages of the book that Newt was reading. It was about black holes. It was Hermann’s.

Hermann. He was due back soon, having stayed behind to fix a computer problem and set up some calculations. 

Newt often thought that Hermann’s bed was more comfortable than his own, especially when Hermann was in it with him. The last thing Newt saw before going to sleep most nights was either the ceiling - which was covered in constellations - or Hermann’s gorgeous face. Once even Hermann’s drooling face - which was also gorgeous. 

If Newt woke up at any point in the night, Hermann was there, leaking heat and usually tangled up with him in some way or other. When Newt awoke in the morning Hermann was usually up before him, the kettle already boiled and the blurry reflection of Hermann shaving visible in the bathroom mirror.

The rumbling of the circular lock unlocking rang through the room. Newt marked his place and grinned as he put the book down. There was a wet patch on the pillow where his head had just been - his hair was still damp from showering. He sat up now, watching as Hermann entered, leaning on his cane more heavily than usual.

“Hello,” Hermann grumbled, gently pressing the door shut.

“Hello yourself,” Newt said, but there was no heat in his voice, only gentle affection. 

“You alright?”

“Happy to be home,” Hermann smiled fondly. Fond looked absolutely adorable on Hermann, Newt thought. 

“You fix the problem?”

“Yes,” Hermann sighed, “but that is all I will say on the matter until tomorrow.” Hermann looked over at him. 

“You showered?” Hermann asked as he sat down on the end of the bed and untied his trainers. 

“Yeah. Thought you wouldn't want one since you showered this morning.” Newt smiled at the memory of precisely what had happened that morning in the shower.

“I can shower twice in a day,” Hermann huffed, starting to remove the layers from the top half of his body. “But I suppose since I'm so tired…” Hermann ended his sentence with another smile, turning his face to look over his shoulder at Newt, so that he could see.

“You want any help with those?” Newt said, trying to conceal his yawn mid sentence. Judging from the amused crinkle around Hermann’s eyes, he had not been that successful.

“No thank you, I’m just going to go brush my teeth.” They’d had dinner on trays from the canteen earlier.

“Good call,” Newt said, leaning back against the pillows. 

He wanted to at least have a conversation with Hermann before going to sleep. Sp Newt opened the book again, but all he succeeded in doing was reading the same passage over and over.

_ Information is never lost. This principle of physics is in accordance with the theorised process of information being stored in the event horizon of a black hole. Thus anything that falls into a black hole and is ripped apart, it is never truly lost, and the laws of physics remain intact. _

All Newt could focus on was that the event horizon was the point of no return. There was no chance of escaping the gravity of a black hole. A person would be ripped apart, right down to the atoms.

Newt considered it for a moment, the book falling closed on his thumb. A point of no return. Falling. It reminded him of love, strangely. 

But a black hole was all-consuming. 

Then again, black holes had played a fundamental role in the layout of the cosmos. Galaxies had formed around them. There was a certain push and pull. That… that could be found in love, as well. 

“Penny for your thoughts?” Hermann slid into bed next to him, his slightly chilly limbs sliding up against Newt’s.

“That I need to warm you up,” Newt smiled a little deviously. Any excuse for a cuddle.

“That would be nice,” Hermann said, pulling the duvet over himself more completely and turning his head towards Newt.

Newt slid under Hermann’s arm, using the side of his chest as a pillow and tangling their legs together. The cold would dissipate within a few minutes.

“Are you becoming more interested in theoretical physics, Doctor?” Hermann said into Newt’s hair, placing a soft kiss on the side of his head at the end of the question.

“Maybe,” Newt said. 

“Are you ready to concede that physics is better than biology?” Hermann’s tone was light. 

“No,” Newt laughed.

“Hmmmm,” Hermann mused, reaching over Newt for the book, “there’s time yet.”

“Or, yknow, you could just admit how awesome biology is,” Newt traced a finger over Hermann’s chest in a hexagon. Hexagons and hexagons and hexagons.

“Newton… what are you doing?” But Hermann didn’t sound exasperated, just curious. He was relaxed.

“It’s glucose,” Newt turned his head to smile at Hermann, “because you’re so sweet.”

“Of course.” Ah, there was the fond exasperation. 

“I can do an equation if you’d prefer…” Newt traced an easy one: e=mc².

“Ja,” Hermann said, “Einstein.” Hermann tended to switch into German more when he was sleepy.

Newt traced something else. A heart.

“Ach, darling. I don’t think there’s an equation for that.” 

Newt could feel himself blushing. He pressed a kiss over Hermann’s heart.

“What do you think, want me to read to you?” 

Hermann had sneakily opened the book and was scanning the page Newt had just been reading.

“That would be lovely,” Newt said, then added hastily, “but I might fall asleep.”

“Alright, Schatz,” Hermann smiled and leaned down for a quick kiss. 

It felt like coming home, it felt like the first sip of coffee in the morning, like playing his favourite song on the keyboard - it felt like Newt was happy.

Hermann slipped his glasses on as Newt adjusted his head to hear the beating of Hermann’s heart. It was strong, steady. The constant staccato of life.

“ _ Were it not so, we would once again be faced with a reality irreconcilable with our understanding of it. In the history of scientific progress, this is a nearly constant experience… _ ”

Newt felt Hermann’s voice reverberate through his chest. It was calming. He curled the hand he wasn’t laying on into the duvet.

“ _... though we may never invent technology that would allow us to survive a black hole - how could one ever compete with gravity on such a scale? - we can still theorise as to what might happen.” _

If love was like gravity, then he and Hermann had fallen into orbit around each other, walking through life one day at time, side by side. 

_ “Once the event horizon has been crossed, there is no going back, yet after our atoms have been divided there is a chance that they could come out of the other side of a black hole. Every hole has a bottom... _ ”

Newt sighed contentedly, inhaling the mix of Hermann’s shower gel, deodorant and the day’s sweat. It was so familiar, so soothing.

“ _...then the exit out of the other side of the white hole would land the atoms in a parallel universe- _ Newton?”

“Yes?” Newt had been busy enjoying the sound of Hermann’s voice. He loved it when he read to him, especially in German - even if his old accent still shone through sometimes.

“Are you listening?”

“Yeah. Even though I could never survive the trip, I could go to another universe if I fall into a black hole.”

Hermann turned the page, but Newt’s sleepy mind was struck by the need to voice his next thought.

“But I wouldn’t want to. You wouldn’t be there.”

Hermann placed the book on his bedside table before looking at Newt with one of his undeterminable gazes.

“You mean I would have died there? The Kaijus would be victorious?”

“No, no,” Newt turned to look at Hermann, sprawling oddly across his side of the bed at this point, “I mean, you would be there, sure, but you wouldn’t be… you.”

“I wouldn’t be the me you’ve shared experiences with, and therefore I would be minimally, yet significantly, different.”

“Yes, exactly. And, well, there’d probably be a Newt there, too.”

“I already feel sorry for my counterpart - two of you! How would I ever get any work done?” 

“Because I’m so distracting?” Newt was trying for sexy.

“The demand for lab space alone,” Hermann sighed dramatically, removing his glasses.

“There must be at least one good thing you can think of,” Newt said.

“Yes, we’d work out how to send you back faster.”

Newt paused for a second, trying to work out if he felt hurt that parallel Hermann would want him gone. But then he realised that him leaving would mean that he returned to his reality where Hermann - the Hermann he knew and loved and who loved him, not parallel Newt, in return - was.

“How romantic,” Newt smiled.

The corners of Hermann’s lips curled upwards. “I do try.”

Newt pressed a soft kiss to Hermann’s arm that was slung across him. Then another. 

“I love you.”

“Ich dich auch,” Hermann replied and tilted Newt’s head up for a proper kiss. 

“Do you ever, you know, think about what’s going to happen… after?” 

Hermann was quiet for a long moment.

“Well, I imagine we’ll continue doing what we’re already doing, if we survive,” Hermann looked at Newt, “even though we’ll need separate studies.”

Newt realised that meant Hermann wanted to move in together. 

“Where would you want to go?” Newt asked.

“I haven’t thought about it much” - Newt had - “but I think wherever we find work is probably best.”

We. Newt smiled. He kissed Hermann again, softly and with all the concentration he could muster.

“As long as we’re together,” Newt mumbled, leaning back to rest his head on the pillow. 

“Sweet dreams Newton,” Hermann smiled, his eyes shining and happy. He reached for Newt’s glasses.

“Thanks babe.”

Then Newt was drifting off to sleep, content in the arms of the man he loved.


End file.
